Pastel Pencils

Hey creatives, Rita Barakat here. Have you been art journaling? I thought I'd share this insert I made in my art journal today. Sometimes you run across a great quote worth preserving; this one is from a song "If we're honest" by Francesca Battistelli. The minute I heard it I knew I wanted to do something with it putting it in my art journal was a perfect choice.First I had cut this page in my art journal book, just to break it up - it makes for a good place to hide journaling. I had some paint spilled on it previously but that's ok, sometimes you work with what you have. I drew some lines and the words in pencil, then traced the words with a PITT® Artist Pen and erased those pencil lines.Then the fun part began! I don't know what it is but there is something very relaxing about drawing doodles! Decorating my letters, not really worried about how it turns out...just doodling. Art journaling is perfect for trying out things, no worries, just be creative.

Here is how it turned out, now it's time for color!

I grabbed my Stamper’s Big Brush Pens and filled in some color.This is when it takes on a life of it's own, more doodles, more color... I used a little gesso to cover any unwanted spots of previous paint when I decided I wanted a clean look.

Here is a close up, anything goes, sometimes you just have to be creative for the fun of it! I loved the way it came out. I also ended up using PITT® Pastel Pencils for the background, they blend easily for a soft look. I used to do these all the time and I forgot how much fun it is! You definitely need to try this - what will you create?

Rita Barakat Mixed Media Artist, Illustrator and Designer & Educator. From wall murals to itty bitty minis you can find her work in various hospitals, corporations, family homes, manufacturer websites and magazines. She designs for Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft® and freelances for a variety of manufacturers

Hi Everyone! Today I'm sharing a fun Christmas ornament I created using wood slices from our Christmas tree last year. We always get a real tree and I had the crazy idea to ask my hubby to cut the trunk into thin slices because I just knew I could use them for something. haha I've had fun making ornaments ever since. You can easily pick up wood slices at your local crafty store for this technique as well. I was mainly inspired by the Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Chalk Board Paint for this project because I was excited to work with it. Other Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft products wanted to come out to play, too namely Glass Glitter Bead Gel, PITT® Pastel Pencils and Texture Luxe™!!

Hey there creatives, Rita Barakat here! Today I am sharing a project inspired by Pinterest! I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest, while I love seeing so many creative ideas I hate that you can easily lose track of time looking and pinning ideas that you may never get around to doing! I have been especially inspired lately by people who have mad skills using an Xacto knife! I am not one of those but I thought I would give it a shot of course on a much smaller and simplified scale!

Hello creative friends, Marjolaine Walker here. Today I have a simple card to show you that I made twice. Once with PITT Pastels and once with Gelatos®. As you've probably already noticed, I use Gelatos® all the time. My PITT Pastels on the other hand have sat unused for many years. How sad is that? They are amazing and I should have been creating with them all along! With minimal effort the color glides on the paper and blends easily. They are lovely to use! I have recorded the process to make this card, I hope you enjoy watching the video and that you'll try this out for yourself!

Hello Bloggers, Mou here! Are you ready for a creative challenge? I hope you are, for it's time for the October 2015 Take the Challenge with Mou!

If you are new to this blog, let me fill you in about Take the Challenge. Every month, on the first Monday, I'll post a challenge and my take on it. You'll have 12 days to take this on. Leave a comment to the challenge post with a link to your creation based on that challenge. We will pick TWO winners from among the readers who participated in that month's challenge. And the winners will get a prize from Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft®.

October is the month of Halloween, at least here in the States. If you are around children, you know that what they love most about that, is the Trick or Treat ritual. So, I thought, for October, why don't I issue you a two-part challenge? No no, don't worry it won't be too tricky and as always there will be a treat at the end! And even if you are not in the States, you can totally play along too. So, without further ado, your challenge this month is:

Part 1: Use BLACK Chalkboard Paint (as much or as little you like) on something you create. It does not have to be Halloween-related, although that would be fun too!

I really love owls. I see them practically everywhere from mugs to pendants and I am impressed with how artists interpret this wise bird in their works. So, I decided to make a nursery décor for my baby with an owl on it.

If you like to do something similar, here are the instructions. Start by painting the wood plaque with BLACK Chalkboard Paint. You don't need to gesso your wood plaque. Once the first coat dries, apply another coat.

Don't forget to share your challenge creations with us... just leave a comment to this challenge post with link to your project image(s) by Sunday, 10/18 and we will pick TWO winners randomly to win these.

Wouldn't this be a great tag to give to someone to lift their spirits? Or as a just because on a bag of cookies or something sweet for a friend? Tags are a great way to try techniques and so fun to give instead of a card! And there's tons of room to write a personal message on the back. :) Do you like to create tags, too?

9. Now, this is when the magic happens. Heat Set the Gel Medium until it BUBBLES!!!! Yes, you WANT air bubbles! I loved discovering this happy mistake :)

10. Outline the bottles with a PITT Artist Pen Black (M).

11. Now, be brave and add some sort of handwritten sentiment on the tag with the Stamper's Artist Pen in White. I layered my sentiment with a Metallic PITT Artist Pen Gold. Now, you just have to adhere the finished Apothecary bottles to the finished tag!

So what do you think?! I cannot wait to add this finished tag to a bottle of wine for a host gift!

Hi everyone! Lisa with you today. We started our Art Journal Journey's last Monday and here we are for the second week and it's a BONUS that we are also blog hopping with Stampendous! Yay!

For my post last week I shared how I was using Gesso, Gel Medium, Gelatos® and a fun vintage postcard image to start building up my Art Journal. This week I'll be adding more layers with stamps, stencils, and additional Textural Accents.

I used the same Gelatos® as last week (over a Gesso base) to give my board a coated with color look. I know I want to journal on a lot of my pages to I'm planning where to use the lightest colors as I color.

Next week is all about embellishments, so I hope you'll be joining us then as we keep working on our Art Journals. And don't forget to stop by the Stampendous Blog to see what THEIR team is creating with our products! :)

We started this journey last Monday and encouraged readers to join the designers every week for a month to create their own art journals. I hope you have your journal and inspiration piece picked out.

Hello Blogosphere! It's Tiffany here today with a Video Tutorial showing you how I created the foundation for my Art Journal Boards. You'll learn different ways to use Gesso, Gel Medium, and Whipped Spackle including Photo Transfers! You'll also see the various ways Stampendous Stamps lend AWESOME texture to those Art Journal pages.

We started this journey last Monday and encouraged readers to join the designers every week for a month to create their own art journals. I hope you have your journal and inspiration piece picked out.

Last week, I showed you how I prepped my pages with some Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Gel Medium and papers. This week, I'm building the bases of all my pages with more of our Textural Accents to create an additional layer on the pages.

Stampendous was so very generous and sent us loads of stamp sets! My favorites were the ones below from NK Studio called Kaffee Klatsch and Wired. I adored the textures and shapes for my page here.

I inked up the stamp with a Stamper's Big Brush pen in Black and stamped some of the smaller doily prints and the barbed circle. Once dry, the ink is permanent as it is India Ink!

That's it for this week's progress on my journal pages. I hope you will continue on with us in your own journal and create bases for the pages. Join me next week as I layer more and add more embellishment to my journal pages!